Leo Tolstoy: The Writing Style Of Anton Chekhov's War

“Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.” These are famous words from Russian author, Anton Chekhov. Chekhov was a very pertinent writer during the Victorian Era. Born in 1860, he started writing during a critical time for authors of his kind - those that focused on the most practical details of actual human life through writing, the people who expressed their realistic outlooks on the world as they knew it without holding back. During this time, realism was a writing style that didn’t appear often - it was essentially taboo to write in such a way. (Landow) Everything about this writing style was entirely new. Writers like Chekhov, and even Tolstoy, helped develop realism into what readers

Like his fellow writer, Chekhov, he possessed realistic characteristics that he portrayed in his works of literature. Tolstoy is known as the author who created one of the longest novels ever written, War and Peace. Throughout this book, Tolstoy focuses on describing Russia after an invasion from Napoleon Bonaparte and his French soldiers. War and Peace shows how this event affected Russian society. Touching on a more sensitive, yet incredibly practical side, Tolstoy gives insight as to what romance was like. In this lengthy novel, Tolstoy explains, “The higher a man stands on the social ladder, the greater the number of people he is connected with, the more power he has over other people, the more obvious is the predestination and inevitability of his every action.” (“War”) This basically is Tolstoy’s way of stating that with a higher level of status, one is more likely to be a person of authority and a person who has the ability to persuade/influence others with great ease. This is something that has been true throughout history. If a person is ranked higher in terms of hierarchy, he/she is more likely to have strong influences on other people in comparison to an individual without a comparable standing. (Magee